Because the Russia-Ukraine warfare enters its 358th day, we check out the principle developments.
Right here is the state of affairs because it stands on Thursday, February 16, 2023:
Preventing
- Russia has launched missile assaults throughout Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian officers mentioned, after Western allies pledged to ramp up army support to the Ukrainian armed forces to assist a deliberate counteroffensive.
- Ukrainian officers mentioned air defences within the south downed eight Kalibr missiles fired from a ship within the Black Sea, however different missiles struck northern and western Ukraine in addition to the central areas of Dnipro and Kirovohrad.
- Russia earlier mentioned it had damaged by way of two fortified defence strains in Ukraine’s east because it continued assaults on Ukrainian positions within the east.
- Ukrainian forces have repelled some Russian assaults however the state of affairs stays troublesome, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s workplace mentioned on Wednesday.
- Russian forces have launched assaults on a number of settlements, together with Paraskoviivka on the northern approaches to Bakhmut, and on Opytne and Klishchiivka villages on its southern approaches, Ukrainian army analysts mentioned.
- In the meantime, six Russian balloons have been noticed over Kyiv and most have been shot down after being engaged by air defences, the capital’s army administration mentioned.
- Russia has misplaced about half of its finest tanks within the yr because it invaded Ukraine and is struggling to interchange them, a analysis centre mentioned.
- Reuters was unable to confirm the battlefield stories.
Politics, economic system
- The European Union’s high diplomat has urged international locations to hitch Germany in sending tanks to Ukraine after media stories that Denmark and the Netherlands mentioned they might not ship Leopard 2 battle tanks.
- NATO international locations are ramping up the manufacturing of artillery munitions as Ukraine is burning by way of shells a lot quicker than the West could make them, the alliance mentioned.
- Ukraine’s state arms producer mentioned it had launched joint manufacturing of shells with a central European nation in NATO, and that it plans to develop and produce different arms and army {hardware} with allies.
- The higher chamber of Russia’s parliament will maintain a rare assembly on February 22 that can deal with the adoption of legal guidelines on the mixing of 4 areas into the Russian Federation, RIA Novosti reported, citing a senior politician.
- A Russian authorities fee has accredited the sale of Swedish furnishings maker IKEA’s three factories in Russia to 2 native consumers, paving the way in which for a deal to be struck, a authorities official was quoted as saying on Thursday. Al Jazeera nonetheless, couldn’t independently verify the veracity of the report.
